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The BBC is set to reveal cost-cutting and reinvestment plans as part of an overhaul of its news services, which have been criticised this week for how the broadcaster refers to Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Defence secretary Grant Shapps on Friday attacked the BBC for not describing Hamas as “terrorists” despite the group’s deadly attacks on Israeli civilians. Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in UK law.
Shapps added to criticism this week from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and culture secretary Lucy Frazer, who has raised her concerns about the editorial code with the director-general.
The broadcaster, which is editorially independent of the government, has a longstanding policy of not using the word terrorist to describe one side in a conflict except where it is reporting comments by others.
The cost-cutting and reinvestment announcement — due next week — is expected to include cutbacks to flagship shows such as Newsnight as the BBC shifts more broadly to a digital-first strategy.
It will reveal plans to reinvest more of its news budget in its increasingly popular digital and streaming services, as well as shift more of its news teams and programmes out of London to cities such as Manchester.
The move will result in net cuts to its news budget, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The strategy rethink comes as the government whittles down the list of potential candidates for the open position of BBC chair. Ministers have been searching for a new chair since the resignation of Richard Sharp in April. Headhunting company Saxton Bampfylde has been approaching a long list of potential candidates since the summer.
Former internal favourite and current board member Sir Damon Buffini is among several public figures who have been linked to the role but decided not to apply, according to people familiar with the matter. Others include Dame Sharon White, the outgoing John Lewis boss, former Sky boss Sir Jeremy Darroch and former ITV chair Sir Peter Bazalgette.
Though Buffini decided not to enter the process before the recent criticisms of the BBC, people familiar with the search process said this week’s controversy was a reminder of the challenges facing whoever is appointed to chair the broadcaster.
However, acting chair Dame Elan Closs Stephens is among those to have applied to take the role permanently, the people said. Others expected to be on the list include veteran studio boss William Sargent.
The reluctance of some to take on the role underscores the challenges the BBC faces in the next four years in the run-up to negotiations with the government over the charter renewal in 2027.
The job of chair — advertised as three days a week — is often more like five days and “sometimes seven days”, according to one person sounded out for the role.
They pointed to the risk of near-constant political attacks. “It’s such a high-wire act,” the person said.
Sharp, the previous chair, left abruptly after being dragged into controversy given his close ties to then prime minister Boris Johnson, who oversaw his appointment.
Government officials said the circumstances of Sharp’s resignation meant there was a particular need to make sure the new chair was appointed transparently in a meritocratic process involving as many candidates as possible.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the process was “fair and open and the BBC charter sets out how the chair is appointed. It is being run in line with the governance code for public appointments.”
BBC executives told the Financial Times that the broadcaster would not change its decades-long editorial position on the use of the word terrorist.
And in a memo sent to staff on Friday seen by the FT, BBC News boss Deborah Turness said that the broadcaster’s coverage “leaves our audiences in no doubt as to the depth of the horror that took place in Israel on Saturday”.
But she said that editorial guidelines were “clear that it is not for us to declare any group as terrorists, it is for us to report when others do . . . this is standard practice for many of the world’s most reputable news organisations”.
The BBC’s regulator, Ofcom, said that decisions over editorial guidelines rested with broadcasters, as long as they met rules on due accuracy and impartiality in news and current affairs programming.
